Argyll & Southern Higlanders

Re: Argyll & Southern Higlanders

I don't usually mention the occasional mis-spelling, as we all do it, but it is 'Pawn', not 'Porn'. Room for a little mis-understanding.

Medals could be pawned because some off them have precious metal content. Unfortunately, because they were so common they had little value in themselves, they were often melted down for this metal. Many individual medals were lost to posterity because of this.

The medal record for Fredk Whatmough tells us a few things. Firstly, he does not get the 1914-15 Star. So he did not get posted overseas before Novemeber 1915.

As has been said, there are no extra awards, including for the MM.

As for his regimental numbers, the first two numbers, 2931 and 7616 are standard regimental numbers for the period prior to 1917. Not sure why he has two, but you do see this from time to time. Presumably the regiment re-organised.

In spring 1917 the Territorials were re-organised on a national scale as a result of the expansion through conscription the year before. Part of this re-organisation included re-numbering all territorial soldiers with a six digit number.

So, we know that this individual was in the territorials, he was in the army before the 1917 re-organisation and he was also given a number as a result of this so was still around in 1917.

Sometimes, just to confuse matters, soldiers killed in 1916 are given new numbers in 1917. But these soldiers are listed as casualties, and this man is not.